"Little girl!" Lianrong giggled. "My grandfather has found just as many clues as the Protectors. We won't try to fool you with such a small matter!"
"Grandpa is so amazing!" The little girl tilted her head and sincerely praised him. The old man could not be as energetic as the young people, but he was able to carry his granddaughter all the way. The hardships he endured were hard for outsiders to understand.
Lianrong noticed that Cheng Shuang's expression had softened considerably. She could tell whether it was genuine or feigned, and besides, such a pretty girl would definitely achieve twice the result with half the effort if she wanted to win people's favor.
Du Jun looked at the calm-faced old man, discarding pleasantries and insincere pleasantries, and asked directly, "Have you also found the family tree?"
Genealogies aren't hard to find. It seems that Hu is just one of the surnames in Shuangsheng Village; families in other villages each have their own genealogies, so the clues won't be limited to just receipts. The difficulty lies in cracking the secrets within and having the opportunity to connect these secrets to understand the whole truth.
The old man nodded without hesitation, "I hope we can exchange the known clues."
Cheng Shuang and Du Jun exchanged a glance. It seemed that Qingyun was not a very good ally. The fact that Sun Han had given them a look and decided to split up must have been largely due to Qingyun's presence.
"Okay, I agree to the exchange."
Du Jun nodded, carefully choosing his words and not suggesting a joint effort. It wasn't because he looked down on the two people, one old and one young, but because he was worried about Qingyun's tendency to misjudge situations. She might resent them for teaming up with someone else temporarily. If she was just being mean, that would be fine, but he was most afraid that she would be petty and have questionable character.
Why let an old man and a young man be targeted by a petty person!
The old man noticed Du Junxin's hesitation and readily shared the clues he had found.
The current name of this mountain village is Shuangsheng Village, which was changed after the founding of the People's Republic of China. It was formerly known as Fengluan Mountain Village.
Cheng Shuang suddenly looked up at the green mountains not far away, "So that mountain is Phoenix Twin Mountain?"
“Yes!” the old man continued, “Whether it’s due to the mountain and water of Fengluan Mountain or some other reason, every family that settles in the village will give birth to twins.”
"But there is no information about this in the family genealogy."
"Yes, because Fengluanshan Village has been plagued by a curse for hundreds of years. Even those who moved in later could not escape it, let alone those who moved out." The old man stood straight, gazing at the green mountains and misty clouds, a picturesque scene. Who could imagine that beneath such beauty and peace, the entire village would be shrouded in the shadow of a curse?
"What I received was a letter. The writer was originally a wealthy landowner. His only daughter was coveted by a powerful figure who wanted to take her as a concubine. Concubines could be beaten or sold into slavery. How could the landowner bear to see his child suffer such humiliation? To escape the powerful, the whole family moved to this beautiful little mountain village. Who would have thought that the curse wouldn't even spare them? This letter was a way for him to hire a master to break the curse at great expense. As for whether it succeeded or not..." The old man shook his head and sighed, "If it had succeeded, we wouldn't be here."
The letter ends there; it does not specify what kind of curse it is.
Du Jun took out the rubbing of the map that Cheng Shuang jokingly called the "baby chirping for food." Now it was confirmed that the map pointed directly to Fengluan Mountain. It was just from a different angle, so they couldn't see any similarity between Fengluan Mountain and the map for the time being. After all, many famous tourist spots, without a guide, would only allow tourists to wander around aimlessly. Some landscapes were so abstract that they were impossible to understand.
The painting passed through the hands of an old man and a young girl, and Lianrong handed it back to Cheng Shuang with a smile. Even though the land of death had worn away most of the girl's poetic sentiments, Du Jun's good looks still made the girl feel a little uncomfortable. So she subconsciously avoided the boys her age who made her heart race if she looked at them too much, and preferred to be around harmless and pretty girls.
“If we follow the map, I think I know what point you’ve found.” The old man was unaware of his granddaughter’s little scheme, and Du Jun was equally oblivious. Hearing this, Du Jun asked, “Have you scouted the route?”
"I've checked it out." The old man nodded.
Cheng Shuang's eyes immediately lit up. She glanced discreetly at the backpacks of the old man and the girl, her tone slightly excited, "Grandpa, are you a martial arts master? You can just walk through the house!" The little girl scratched her cheek, thinking of a precise description, "Like the kind of person who can leap onto the roof beams, lift tiles, and walk on snow without leaving a trace, scaling walls and rooftops with incredible agility?"
Lianrong's eyes widened, while the old man remained silent for a moment before laughing, "I didn't expect you to be so clever, little one. But it's not that amazing, just good with your legs."
"You are truly skilled!" Du Jun exclaimed.
The old man shook his head modestly, "Here, the ability to survive is the real skill."
Cheng Shuang actually guessed that the other party was carrying a cold weapon, and she remembered the tiled houses in the village, which led to this imagination. After all, she had witnessed Liao Yuewei's skill of "using everything as a blade" and her excellent skills beyond her skills, so it was not surprising that she would encounter a martial arts master.
The topic should stop here; to continue the discussion would be inappropriate.
The little girl went straight to the instance and asked, "Are you and Sister Lianrong coming with us to the place you mentioned?"
“This place shouldn’t be far from the village. If you don’t mind, we can travel together for now,” Du Jun invited.
"It's not far," Lianrong smiled, her eyes lowered. "Grandpa is worried that she'll be guarding the ancestral hall alone, so he certainly won't go far."
“Alright!” The old man nodded. “Actually, it’s just a small temple in front of the mountain. I saw that the temple wasn’t very big, so I took a look from afar and planned to come back and explore it during the day.”
The four of them quickly left the village entrance and walked through the village along the main road without encountering any other players. The small temple, like a landmark, stood at the intersection of the back of the village and the front of the mountain. It was dilapidated and shorter than an ordinary bungalow. There was no smell of incense or candles, and weeds grew all around it.
The small temple's door lay crookedly on the grass, its roof low and without windows, making it very dark. Du Jun took out a flashlight and shone it inside. Seeing that there was no danger, he stepped across the threshold first.
The old lady came second, and Lianrong let Cheng Shuang go first while she followed.
When Cheng Shuang entered, she discovered that there were no Buddha statues in the temple. The central hall was empty, but the four walls were mottled and not ordinary walls. They looked as if they had once been covered with colorful murals, but now all of them had been destroyed by the passage of time.
The portrait is faded and worn, but one can still vaguely make out that the people in the painting are as if they are going through the eighteen levels of hell, with blood flowing endlessly, hearts ripped out, and limbs severed...
The little girl then saw a portrait with a drooping head and no external injuries. Immediately afterwards, she discovered several bones on the ground in the painting.
The little girl pursed her lips, silently tugged at Du Jun who was looking at other portraits, and pointed to a few bones, asking, "Doesn't it look like a lamb spine?"
Du Jun felt a sudden tightness in his throat. How could he look at the lamb spine hotpot the same way now? He then ruffled her little head, still feeling a bit annoyed, and whispered, "I'll remember to find you some health and hygiene textbooks, little He, that's for your cervical spine."
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